The Ugly Lemon Tree

When we moved into our new "old" house three Christmas's ago, Bob went to Lowe's to pick-up a few materials he needed to continue his remodeling of "this old house" and returned with this lemon tree. He brought it in and put it in front of the front window in our bedroom. At that time, you couldn't tell what it was. It was just an ugly sad looking bush or tree. It was hard to tell what it was. And it was occupying space in our bedroom. It didn't go with the decor and the lace curtain could no longer cover the window, it had to be pulled to the side so the lemon tree could get light. Why would you buy a lemon tree in New York? We never had one when we lived in California. We had just about every other type of fruit tree, but no lemon tree. And now, of all places, in New York we have a lemon tree! In the summer the lemon tree goes out onto the side porch and enjoys the sunshine and warmth of the outside but before there is even a chance of a frost, it is brought faithfully back into the house to our bedroom and placed in front of the window. Amazingly, the tree is doing really well. Look at the lemons. Can you believe it? When the tree has blossoms, Bob takes a Q-tip and pollinates them. I didn't know that was what he was doing, I just kept finding yellow-coated Q-tips on the windowsill and would throw them away wondering why Bob would put used Q-tips on the windowsill. After a few days of throwing the Q-tips away, Bob asked me why I kept throwing the Q-tips away and that is when I was informed of the pollenizing process. Well, it must have worked, because as you can see we have beautiful lemons on our tree, and we will be picking them and making fresh lemon meringue pies for our Christmas dinner. I love lemon meringue pie!! It's one of my favorites.

The pot it is growing in isn't much to talk about either. However, this post is longer than I thought it would be. I also want to point out the blue woodwork. This is one of Bob's fix-it projects he is planning to take care of right after Christmas. He will be painting the woodwork upstairs and hanging closet doors. I hope!!